teaching scripts

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My son (almost 4) is an echolaliac and uses scripts to communicate, to stim, and for his entertainment.
He also has a bunch of "spontaneous" language that has evolved from scripts he's learned and changed.
He also has some limited "original" language.

He communicates at an ok level- he can usually tell us what he wants or needs (unless he doesn't know himself what he wants or needs...that's fun). He can comment on things he sees or things other people say. He can greet people and some other basic things etc. He can talk about his special interests using chopped up scripts and info that he knows. He doesn't do very well communicating feelings or how he feels physically- I think this has more to do with him not being able to decode/process sensory stuff and translate into words even if he knows the actual words...

But I feel like lately he's stalled and isn't moving forward in his communication as much as he or we would like. I think he is getting more frustrated with not being able to say what he wants, and of course we'd like to be able to talk with him on a different level eventually.

Because he does so well memorizing and using scripts, one of the (many) things we do to encourage his language development is try to teach him scripts that are more useful than things from books and TV that he memorizes and then try to get him to use them in context- you know taking advantage of the gestalt style of language acquisition. This does work, but the scripts don't seem to stick as well as those he reads from his favourite books.

I'm looking for books or shows or anything that has USEFUL scripts that can be used in normal everyday interactions or conversations that we can pluck out and teach context for. Things that he will be interested in and that he might like to read or watch ad nauseam.


Any suggestions?
Or anything that worked for you to take steps toward better communication with an echolaliac?

As always, thanks.

does e also get speech therapy? My son also learned to talk by extracting scripts from TV shows or what we say to him, he always used his scripts in appropriate manners, but he also got speech in pre school. that helped leaps and bounds.

Hi,

Nothing will get you as far as special interests. We did the social story thing, too, and they were OK, but never as good as the actual real fun stuff. What I suggest is going through his favorite shows and movies and plucking out prosocial/educational messages you want to reinforce, and use those lines as appropriate. You can actually converse in "echolalia."

The other thing I recommend is trying to expand horizons if you can, to include more shows, so you can get more quotes. I used to have PBS KIDS on all day. My son wasn't watching it. It was for me. So, I could find shows, or episodes with the right "theme" and some good quotes that had a hook he might like. He is not really a TV guy, but you can get him to watch parts of things, sometimes. if he likes it, he'll repeat it. He does not care if it is too "babyish" either because that might even make it funnier. I even got some things from the funnier things on Nick Jr. like Yo Gabba Gabba, b/c he likes goofy songs.

Now that I am homeschooling I don't get to do this much b/c we have to focus.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood has some good pithy little songs, if he would like a little anthropomorphized tiger cub. I don't know what kind of shows your son likes, so it is hard to recommend. If he doesn't care that it is a "girlish" kind of show, I found Kai Lan on Nick Jr. to have a lot of prosocial songs.

I second Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and the original Mr. Rogers. Little Bill is good too.

I learned to speak like your son and what eventually helped was reading and writing and typing. My creative use if language has always been significantly better when I can see and manipulate the words.

Hi Screen Name, how are you?

LOL...I was bothered when Mr Rogers used to take off his shoes; I sensed the smell of the room.

Seriously, Mr Rogers was all right--but I was more influenced by the World of Make-Believe. I especially liked the spinning museum with that old lady who ran it (who I later found out was somewhat prickly in personality).

Sorry, OP.....off topic a bit LOL

It think it's a great idea expanding upon the scripts he already uses. This will expand his "schema"--his view of the world.

At such a young as your kid, I would make lots of use of what he enjoys, while reinforcing social rules--making "nice" with people.

Sitting and focusing can be a huge obstacle. I try to make what I do as kinesthetically friendly as I can, as well as bright and visual and that helps. Special interests help, too. (I know I said that already but it is true.) Any way that I can integrate them helps in everything I do. There tends to be special interest tangent thing, that still goes on, but it keeps him rom just randomly going off on things, and we get more done.

I'm glad that was helpful to hear.

If he is reading, or even if he just has some phonemic or print awareness (which it sounds like he does), you could write the words of the scripts he says--one word on one index card each. Then, he can rearrange the words to make new sentences which you read (or he could, when it becomes a non-frustrating task). It might just be a fun activity, but I think I would have found that useful. I wouldn't do it *when* he is trying to communicate--just during playtime to enhance his ability to create novel utterances.

My guy is 4 too. Yo Gaba is great( we use "you gotta wait your turn" song too) and so is Bubble Guppies if he likes songs. I don't know how facile your little one is with devices, but mine really is frighteningly good at finding stuff on You Tube. He taught himself most of the shapes and many nouns that we didn't realize he knew until ABA did flashcards because they aren't household stuff for us so they didn't come up.

Also, ABC Mouse is great for my guy, but you have to pay for that one.

Yo Gaba Gaba is pretty cool- we watched it for the first time and I really enjoyed it! It totally could have been something I would have enjoyed in my substance-riddled adolescence too. No question where they come up with that stuff, that's for sure.

ASDMom the problem I was having with "emotionally charged" scripts was actually not them being used inappropriately- it was actually that the language itself was inappropriate. For example, in so many episodes of Word World (which my hyperlexic son loved since age 1 of course) the characters or items that are made up of letters get "broken"- some of their letters break or fall off. This is upsetting of course, and my son would get upset and for years now he has a script "Oh no! My monster broke!" that he says when he feels very upset. You can see why this is problematic.
We have watched Daniel Tiger too- one problematic script from there is from an episode about trying new foods and the little cat character doesn't like any of the vegetables so they are constantly asking her "How about a carrot? How about a pepper?" or something like that. Now when my son doesn't want to eat something or try something, he will say "How about a carrot? How about a pepper?" I have been wanting to KILL his preschool teacher who is complaining about he doesn't eat his lunch or snack (we are having major food issues lately) and saying I should put carrots and peppers in lunch because that's what he wants! Yeah. Try to give him a carrot or pepper. He does not want it.
The food thing is becoming a huge huge problem lately... the boy is surviving on air. I don't know what to do. A subject for another post. Sigh.

Anyway scripts are helpful for us, but they are also sooo problematic and I'm trying to navigate this fine line.

I'm so exhausted.